I am sure more happened than this

Wow. I am really horrible at consistently updating my friends and family about life. Things change really quickly around here and it feels like time flies by....really. I can't believe where I am now and where I started!

I shouldn't write about everything in detail since that would make for an extremely long entry. For purposes of updating those I don't get a chance to speak with, here are some bullet points.

• In addition to doing logistics, I am covering the nutrition program while the manager is away. It is a very satisfying experience and makes me think I should look into how I could become more qualified to do relief work. Maybe that is a strange sentence but I think getting some sort of credential to do work here, even a certificate, could be helpful. 
• At the nutrition center, one of the community volunteers refuses to speak English so I have been learning Arabic. I learn really quickly when I HAVE to speak to her in Arabic. It's still coming along slowly but I can out together some very basic sentences and understand her better than when I began. Things like this make me absolutely love the work I do.
• I've been holding tons of babies! It makes me SO so happy when a mother hands me a fat baby because it means we are giving them food they need to make those babies HEALTHY. Skinny babies make me sad. 
• I'm not sure if I wrote about this but one of our driver's accidentally ran over a pig. Where I am, you have to pay for a pig when you run it over but then you get to keep the pig. I went to the neighbor's house to butcher it and was so satisfied to watch that pig's head get chopped off. I think the pig's around here are super annoying and we even had to slam on our brakes yesterday to avoid one in the middle of the road.
• We baked a cake last week in our oven. It doesn't look like an oven by western standards and you still have to put coals in it, but it made a very delicious cake. This sounds like a stupid bullet point, I know, but I haven't made a cake yet over here and baking it over coals was cool. I would never do that back home!
• There was recently come conflict in a nearby camp between the refugees and the host community. Some men got seriously injured and were brought to our hospital. We don't have a blood bank at our hospital but one of the men needed blood. Me and my co worker are O negative, so we donated to this man. It was great being able to give something since I don't have medical knowledge and couldn't help in that way. The man ended up dying early the next morning which was a very serious reminder of how fragile the relationship is between the locals and the refugees in this area. It reminded me that different things are important to different people and everyone will defend what they feel is most important. Even to death. 
• I found out an old friend was found dead back home. I haven't spoken to this person in awhile but we had been close at one time in my life. It was very strange finding out he was dead because it didn't seem real, it didn't seem like something that was possible. I am still trying to grasp the reality of death...I realize it is part of life but it's strange to really come to terms with someone being gone. I can't ever talk to that person again. 

Those are the main things that have been going on. A lot of death lately. I have recently been very exhausted and can't WAIT to go on R & R. If anyone finds themselves in Italy or Brussels...let me know!